Now the taxman can bug your home and phone calls to catch payment dodgers

Tax inspectors have been given wideranging new powers to bug people's homes and private phone calls.

They also have the go-ahead to intercept emails and plant listening devices in suspects' cars and offices.

The move is the latest expansion of surveillance powers which, until recently, were only available to the police and intelligence services.

Revenue officers used to work to a set of strict rules that even banned them from looking in cupboards at a home or business during a visit without express permission.

But now officials investigating allegations of tax evasion can pry into every aspect of a suspect's life in the hunt for evidence.

Senior revenue officials have been given the power to sanction the use of surveillance techniques under the same rules that govern the work of MI5, GCHQ and the police.

Customs officers who are fighting gun-runners, drug-smugglers and people-traffickers have also had similar surveillance approval.

The Inland Revenue and Customs were amalgamated three years ago into HMRC, which last night said the new move simply gave taxmen the same power to battle crime as their colleagues.

The revenue section's go-ahead is the result of the Serious Crimes Act, which gained Royal assent last October and has just allowed the relevant powers to come into effect.

Last night, HMRC officials played down the significance of the move, calling it an "across-the-board rationalisation". UK Daily Mail